Sweet tooths are about to rejoice, according to strawberry farmer Nathan Baronio, because he has been recording numbers in his fruit he is certain you will be able to taste.
Like many things on a farm, it all comes down to the weather, and on Queensland's Granite Belt the nights have turned cooler, while the days have stayed warm, two things strawberries love.
Soon, the days will become too cold for the plants, but before the frosts hit, they're going out with the sweetest bang.
It all comes down to brix, a measurement of sugar content.
"During the normal part of the season, you'll see levels of between six and nine, but tailing towards the end of our season, we're getting recordings of 12 and 13. It's just beautiful," Mr Baronio said.
"We squeeze the juice from the fruit onto a handheld refractometer and we get a number between zero and 20."
Despite an "up and down" summer on his farm, with high rainfall and hot days, Mr Baronio said the past six weeks had been perfect for growing the sweetest strawberries.
The picky fruit
Talk to any berry grower, and they'll tell you strawberries are very picky when it comes to climate.
Christopher Menzel, principal horticulturist with Queensland's Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, said Stanthorpe's recent weather had been exactly what the fruit had ordered.
"You get higher brix levels when you have nice, clear, blue-sky days that are warm, but not too hot, with cold nights," Dr Menzel said.
Dr Menzel said for most types of fruit, including strawberries, the higher the brix level, the better tasting the fruit.
"But taste and aroma is complex," he said.
"It's also dependent on organic acids and some minor components that we call volatiles.
"So it's a mixture of all those different components added to the sweetness and the flavour that the consumer would pick up when they eat a berry."
The challenge of climate change
Because strawberries are very sensitive to environmental conditions, Dr Menzel said research had turned to focus on the effects of climate change on the berry.
He said his department had collaborated with the University of Florida to study how strawberries would fare in the future.
"Australian strawberry consumers are very lucky, that just like avocados, we've got those products available 12 months a year," Dr Menzel said.
The fruit is grown in cooler climates – like Stanthorpe — during summer and autumn, and switches to sub-tropical environments – like the Sunshine Coast — during winter, where there are no frosts.
"I think climate change will affect different parts of the industry differently," Dr Menzel said.
"Whereas in other areas, particularly down south where they grow them in summer, it'll be heat stress on the plant."
Dr Menzel said it could become more common to see berries grown under cover in the future.
"There is a lot of interesting growing, a lot of horticultural crops including berries, under protected systems including glasshouses where you can moderate the temperature," he said.
"But that's probably only available to the larger growers that have plenty of capital."
He said the longer-term solution was developing new breeds of strawberry that could tolerate heat.
In the meantime, it seems everyone is enjoying southern Queensland's final strawberry crop for the season.
Warwick-based fruit seller Peter Cary said the sweetness was the talk of the market stalls.
Mr Baronio said if people missed out on the extra-sweet May strawberries from Stanthorpe, they could keep an eye out in July and August as fruit grown in coastal areas should be at their peak brix levels then.
